Thursday, April 20, 2017

-Privacy commissioner Jill Clayton confirmed the investigation in a letter to MacIntyre, writing that it “appears from my review of the complaint that information may have been inappropriately withheld in response to access requests made” to the Balancing Pool. “This is long overdue. This government has been trying their best to keep things under cover. Thankfully, the (freedom of information) system keeps exposing it,” MacIntyre said Thursday.-----------Julie Ali · University of Alberta The privacy commissioner should also investigate why I was not given all the audits I requested for the Good Samaritan Extended Care at Millwoods. I was given the 2015 CCHSS audit of the facility but there was no mention made of the withholding of the Alberta Health Quality Audit of 2014. I was also not given a 2014 AHS Quality audit. It appears that the government of Alberta can do whatever it wants to do and make up excuses for withholding information. In my case, I wasn't even given an excuse. Only one audit was released and I only found out about the other quality audits from the Protection for Persons in Care investigation notes that I requested. It's amazing to me that the government of Alberta doesn't simply release all audits for continuing care facilities. Currently there is only release of accommodation inspections; these are up on the website temporarilly and then taken down. There is no permanent repository of the history of audits of the contininuing care industry in Alberta. The level of secrecy and lack of accountability indicates to this citizen at least these practices by the government of Alberta are designed to cover the butts of all concerned in the poor oversight that is currently in place. The government of Alberta needs to provide information to citizens and it needs to do this is a permanent database that we can access without the expense of FOIP requests that in turn do not provide all the information. Democracy depends on information access and accountability depends on citizens using this information to ask government questions that government has the responsibility and duty to answer. Without the information democracy is a sham. Like · Reply · Just now

The province’s privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into deleted emails related to the cancelling of power purchase agreements with Alberta power companies.

Wildrose MLA Don MacIntyre sent the request to the commissioner in November regarding an email from James Allen, who was assistant deputy minister in the department of energy, to Balancing Pool CEO Bruce Roberts, in which Allen writes that the email is “sensitive and transitory” and to “please delete” it.

Privacy commissioner Jill Clayton confirmed the investigation in a letter to MacIntyre, writing that it “appears from my review of the complaint that information may have been inappropriately withheld in response to access requests made” to the Balancing Pool.

“This is long overdue. This government has been trying their best to keep things under cover. Thankfully, the (freedom of information) system keeps exposing it,” MacIntyre said Thursday.

The power purchase arrangements have been controversial since the government announced a beefed-up carbon levy on large emitters. Four companies that bought coal-fired electricity from generators and resold it to the grid walked away from the agreements, saying they were now unprofitable, leaving the Balancing Pool to borrow more than $2 billion to cover the losses. The government is still battling Enmax in court over the company’s decision to return the contract to the Balancing Pool, with no end in sight. It has reached settlements with the other three companies: AltaGas, TransCanada and Capital Power.

In question period Thursday, deputy premier Sarah Hoffman said the government is “happy to comply and support the privacy commissioner in her work.”

MacIntyre had also asked for a wider investigation into a “culture of secrecy” in the government, but the commissioner declined to take that on, saying she didn’t fully understand the request and wasn’t sure if it was part of her office’s jurisdiction.

The privacy commissioner should also investigate why I was not given all the audits I requested for the Good Samaritan Extended Care at Millwoods. I was given the 2015 CCHSS audit of the facility but there was no mention made of the withholding of the Alberta Health Quality Audit of 2014. I was also not given a 2014 AHS Quality audit. It appears that the government of Alberta can do whatever it wants to do and make up excuses for withholding information.

In my case, I wasn't even given an excuse. Only one audit was released and I only found out about the other quality audits from the Protection for Persons in Care investigation notes that I requested. It's amazing to me that the government of Alberta doesn't simply release all audits for continuing care facilities. Currently there is only release of accommodation inspections; these are up on the website temporarilly and then taken down.

There is no permanent repository of the history of audits of the continuing care industry in Alberta. The level of secrecy and lack of accountability indicates to this citizen at least these practices by the government of Alberta are designed to cover the butts of all concerned in the poor oversight that is currently in place. The government of Alberta needs to provide information to citizens and it needs to do this is a permanent database that we can access without the expense of FOIP requests that in turn do not provide all the information. Democracy depends on information access and accountability depends on citizens using this information to ask government questions that government has the responsibility and duty to answer. Without the information democracy is a sham.

Slick Water

Slick Water

Fracking and One Insider’s Stand Against the World’s Most Powerful Industry

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Jessica, Magic and Bandit, photograph by Maggie Dickeson

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March for our Lives

How is one reborn after a fall? by Muriel Barbery

14. From Passageway to Pathway

What is this war we are waging, when defeat is so certain? Day after day, already wearied by the constant onslaught, we face our terror of the everyday, the endless passageway that, in the end--because we have spent so much time walking to and fro between its walls---will become a destiny. Yes, my angel, that is our everyday existence:dreary, empty, and mired deep in troubles. The pathways of hell are hardy foreign; we shall end up there one day if we tarry too long. From passageway to pathway; it is an easy fall, without shock or surprises. Every day we are reacquainted with the sadness of the passageway and step by step we clear the path towards our mournful doom.Did he see the pathways? How is one reborn after a fall? What new pupils restore sight to scorched eyes? Where does war begin, where does combat end?